The Brandeis Hoot - 3/7/14

Volume 11 Number 7

www.thebrandeishoot.com

Brandeis University’s Community Newspaper • Waltham, Mass.

March 7, 2014

Israel Apartheid Week prompts controversy Early retirement an

opportunisitic option

By Dana Trismen Editor

photos by sindhura sonnathi/the hoot

controversy Students filled Lown Auditorium to hear Max Blumenthal speak.

Max Blumenthal delivers keynote address

By Emily Belowich Editor

On Monday night, Lown auditorium hosted a packed audience, ready to listen to award-winning journalist

Panel explores Brazilian riots through varied perspectives

By Jess Linde Editor

Students, faculty and off-campus guests crowded into International Lounge in Usdan on Tuesday, March 4 for “Global Protests, Local Realities,” a panel event designed to discuss the massive Brazilian street protests of 2013 and relate them to the country’s past, present and future. The event was presented by the Brandeis International Business School (IBS) Brazil Initiative, and put together by the Brazil Initiatives Coordinator Dr. Moises Lino e Silva.

Silva, a native Brazilian and a lecturer in Brandeis’ Anthropology and International and Global Studies departments, welcomed not only the students and panelists, but also the recently appointed Brazilian Consul General, Ambassador Frederico Cezar de Araujo, who listened intently to the discussion and met with panelists at the end of the event.

Silva began by saying that while “Brazil has a history of protest,” including the constant ones during the series of military dictators from 1964 to 1985, what he believed made the 2013 protests significant was the global attention they received. One of Silva’s areas of expertise is Brazil’s social issues, which compounded his interest in the protests, which seemed to be based around many issues and without a singular focus or leader.

The protests first began in response to a proposed 20-cent increase in bus fare, but quickly grew to address other problems with infrastructure

Inside this issue:

and social inequalities, including an ironically very racist Human Rights department. Once the protests exploded in June of 2013, anarchists, workers and other Brazilian citizens were in the streets protesting the aforementioned as well as the country’s proposed $14 billion on the 2014 World Cup in the face of underfunded schools and hospitals. Western media continued to focus on the bus fare increase for a while, something that confused Silva, who asked the audience if they “really think this was all about 20 cents?”

Silva then showed a quick video taken from the head-mounted camera of a photojournalist taking powerful images of Brazilian unity, the protests’ massive size and the extremely violent response taken by police against protesters. “I think [the video] is extremely effective and touching if you have any personal attachment to Brazil,” said Silva to the visibly moved audience. Before introducing the panelists, Silva asked the audience to consider Brazil’s history of protest and political corruption, as well as the country’s recent troubles with infrastructure, while listening to the panelists paint a full picture of the events.

The members of the panel then introduced themselves and their positions of discussion one by one in a series of 10-minute speeches to the audience. The first panelist was Dr. Elizabeth Leeds, Research Affiliate at the MIT center for International See BRAZIL, page 4

News: Cafe Science combines chemistry and tapas Page 3 Page 8 Arts, Etc.: Hoover samples her dark novel Opinion: Housing process creates dog-eat-dog world Page 14 Page 11 Sports: Women’s BBall loses regular season game Page 10 Editorial: Support needed for all discussions

Max Blumenthal deliver the keynote address of Brandeis Israel Apartheid Week. Sponsored by Brandeis Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) See BLUMENTHAL, page 3

Sara Kunz has worked diligently at Brandeis for decades, first with Professor Al Redfield on NMR Spectrometers and then within the Chemistry Department for the past 15 years. A graduate of Brandeis herself, Kunz has poured time, passion and effort into her varied positions within the Chemistry Department. This May, Kunz will be retiring, choosing to participate in Brandeis’ recently announced retirement buyouts.

“It was hard I think because it was sudden,” Kunz said in an interview this week. “But on the other hand it was sort of obvious, that if I didn’t take this … I didn’t expect that I would be on the short list of people to let go to save more money, but if I worked until I turned 67, if I worked until I was 68, I thought there comes a point where you need to let the new people figure it out.”

Kunz has enjoyed her years of ser-

vice to Brandeis, and the varied positions she has held.

“I have great people to work with and to help me and to assist me,” said Kunz. “I’ve found I’m not a people person, very much, I do very well with equipment as I don’t have to remember their names. But I’ve always had people who were very good at helping me.”

Kunz will be retiring by May 30, per conditions set out by Brandeis’ new “voluntary early retirement buyout packages.” These packages were announced on Jan. 27 for staff members 60 years or older with 10 or more years of service at Brandeis. The buyouts were proposed to address a projected $6.5 billion deficit incurred by the university. It promises a year’s severance at the employee’s regular base pay, in addition to $15,000 of “transition allowance.”

In a recent email to The Hoot, David Bunis, senior vice president and chief legal office, stated that these See RETIREMENT, page 5

MSA disrespected by vandalism

vandalism Someone cut out the words “Enter here in peace and security” from the sign on the MSA suite.

By Emily Stott Editor

Signs torn down. A suite trashed.

The Imam’s Qur’an stolen. The removal of the words “Enter here in peace and security.”

The Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Brandeis has dealt with isolated incidents of vandalism in recent years, though no individual person has ever been held responsible for the incidents. The most recent problem occurred a few weeks ago, when someone precisely cut out the words “Enter here in peace and security,”

written in English under the words in Arabic, from a sign on the door leading to the MSA Suite in Usdan.

The Brandeis community has dealt with each incident well. Many students have expressed support, and administrators have installed card access to the room during the evening hours. In response to the most recent crime, they plan to install security cameras outside the door to the suite.

But even with an appropriate response, students in the MSA remain concerned about the event. Dr. Imam Talal Eid was the first to notice the sign missing, and he brought it up

during Friday prayers. When no one claimed responsibility for the missing part of the sign, the matter was directed to Jamele Adams, dean of student life.

“We don’t know what were their intentions; it could have not been malicious,” said Alina Cheema ’15, co-president of the MSA. “We’re not offended, but we would like to know why they did it,” Ayesha Malik ’14, also co-president of the MSA, added.

The evidence points to a planned See VANDALISM, page 3

Baasa kicks off

Track and field team

Opening ceremony marks beginning of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

Women and men track and field teams participate in UAA championships.

start of apahm

Arts: Page 9

ends up seventh

Sports: Page 11

photo by emily stott/the hoot

news

2 The Brandeis Hoot

March 7, 2014

Fraternities under fire after New York hazing fatality

By Charlie Romanow Staff

Two months after a student at Baruch College died during a fraternity ritual, New York state lawmakers are pushing forward a bicameral bill to educate students about hazing and impose harsher punishments for it.

19-year-old finance major Chun Hsien Deng, known as Michael, died in Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 9 after being hazed during a Pi Delta Psi event in a rented home in Tunkhannock Township, Pennsylvania. As part of the ritual, Deng, in addition to three other initiates, ran a gauntlet between members of the fraternity while blindfolded and carrying 20 pounds of sand in the freezing snow as members attempted to tackle them. During the ritual he fell back and hit his head and went unconscious. Before his fraternity brothers searched for professional treatment they changed his freezing wet clothes, placed him by a fire and looked up his symptoms on Google. They brought him to a hospital, approximately 30 minutes away, 90 minutes after the initial fall. He was ruled brain dead by doctors and

placed on life support before dying in the morning. The death has since been ruled a homicide by a Pennsylvania coroner from “closed head injuries due to blunt force trauma.” Although police discovered marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms in the house, no substances, including alcohol, were found in Deng’s system.

The Pocono Record reported that police found “a photocopied document related to moral problems with torture” in the house but that “the cryptic document on torture was not explained further.”

The fraternity has since been banned from Baruch College, a part of the City University of New York located in the Flatiron District of Manhattan. The college enrolls nearly 13,000 undergraduates and 3,300 graduate students. It is home to the largest business school in the nation, the Zicklin School of Business.

The school will conduct its own review that may lead to disciplinary action. The College did not know about the fraternity’s gathering or that they were rushing a pledge class. School President Mitchel Wallerstein has said that some of the 30 students at the initiation have not been cooperating. The District Attorney of Monroe

County, the location of the rented home, plans to file criminal charges.

The New York Daily News stated that charges could range from reckless endangerment to manslaughter.

Charges may stem from the fraternity’s attempt to cover up the true cause of death and impeding medical treatment. The three members that accompanied Deng to the hospital told the hospital that his injury was sustained by wrestling in the snow.

While at the hospital, one member called members at the house and told them to get rid of all items related to the fraternity. Some of the students initially refused to answer questions from investigators but later cooperated.

In speaking about the fraternity members’ delay in bringing Deng to the hospital, a Baruch student stated “in those two hours at the hospital, he could have possible [sic] been saved.

He wouldn’t have to go on the life support,” reported NY1 News.

Pi Delta Psi is an Asian-American cultural fraternity founded in 1994 at Binghamton University. It has 1,500 members throughout its 30 chapters, and the Baruch chapter was chartered in 2010. Pi Delta Psi, which bans hazing, has since revoked the chapter’s

forum Members of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity may receive charges ranging from reckless endangerment to manslaugter.

photo from internet source

affiliation. The fraternity will conduct an investigation of the incident. They have suspended all member education nationwide indefinitely.

Andy Meng, National Executive President of Pi Delta Psi told NBC News, “Our early understanding is that this incident occurred at an unsanctioned event that was strictly prohibited by our organization.”

David Weprin, Democratic member of the New York State Assembly has introduced legislation with Republican Kenneth LaValle representing the New York State Senate in the State Legislature. The bill, titled “Michael’s Law,” if put into effect, would prohibit all physical conduct during fraternity pledging. The punishment for hazing will remain the same as a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and/or a $1,000 fine.

In addition to hazing in Greek life, the bill will apply to any organization that has access to college facilities, including athletic teams. Schools will be required to adopt rules prohibiting hazing, underage drinking and drug use in such groups as well as provide incoming students with information about the restrictions.

Weprin told WCBS 880 that the ritual’s intent “may not be to cause physical injury, but once you’re dealing with physical contact, you don’t know where it’s going to end up.”

Bloomberg News reported that a federal anti-hazing law was proposed last year but received too much opposition from the Fraternity and Sorority Political Action Committee which represents the interests of Greek organizations in Washington, D.C. Bloomberg News reported that there have been 59 fatalities from fraternity incidents since 2005 and six incidents that resulted in paralysis as well as numerous lesser injuries. Other hazing incidents around the country have made headlines recently, including a deadly beating

photo from internet source

of a student during a marching band ritual at Florida A&M University that resulted in 15 students being charged with manslaughter or felony hazing.

Research published in 2012 by the University of Maine found that 73 percent of social fraternity and sorority members experience hazing. 55 percent of students involved in clubs, teams and other organizations face hazing.

Membership and revenue of Greek organizations has continued to rise in recent years. While speaking about the popularity of Greek organizations, forensic psychologist Dr. Stephen Reich told CBS 2 News, “The need to be included is absolutely profound. Based upon the sense that ‘on my own, I’m not enough and, therefore, I need the social inclusion.’”

Deng was from the Oakland Gardens neighborhood of Queens, New York. He graduated from the prestigious Bronx High School of Science in 2013 as a member of the bowling and handball teams.

Grimes and Pillow-Gnanaratnam made new deans

By Jess Linde Staff

This Thursday, Dean of Student Life Jamele Adams announced via an email to The Hoot the promotion of Stephanie Grimes and Monique Pillow Gnanaratnam to assistant deans who will assist Adams in the Office of the Dean of Student Life. While it is currently unknown if other faculty members were considered for the assistant dean positions, Grimes and Pillow Gnanaratnam were selected personally by Adams and are expected to assume new responsibilities in the immediate future.

“These are not new positions, they are promotions as part of the restructuring of the Dean of Students Office,” wrote Senior Vice President for Communications Ellen de Graffenreid in an email. De Graffenreid and Adams also stated that both Grimes and Pillow Gnanaratnam will continue to run their respective departments while gaining further responsibilities as assistant deans.

Specifically, Grimes will now oversee the Department of Orientation within Admissions, and Pillow Gnanaratnam will oversee the Department of Community Service, including Waltham Group and other programs. Adams assured that their promotions would not harm Grimes or Pillow Gnanaratnam’s abilities to run their current departments in addition to their new responsibilities.

Neither Grimes or Pillow Gnanaratnam could be reached for comment

by press time regarding their new positions.

Grimes, current director of Student Activities, is known throughout campus for being the administrative side of setting up nearly every event on campus hosted by Student Events, as well as assisting nearly every student club at Brandeis do the same.

Grimes is also well known by students for her weekly “What’s Happening at Brandeis” emails, which list on-campus events for the coming weekend.

Pillow Gnanaratnam is the director of the Intercultural Center (ICC) and oversees not only the ICC’s daily operation, but also the various programs and clubs that are housed there. She is well known to students in cultural and related clubs, and is in charge of providing academic opportunities and resources to them. Pillow Gnanaratnam also assists in setting up events based around encouraging and celebrating diversity on campus, and is listed as a campus ally for Brandeis LGBTQ affairs.

Both Grimes and Pillow Gnanaratnam were chosen for the above qualifications and others, according to Adams. “Stephanie has been with us for over 16 years,” said Adams in his email. “[Grimes] started her Brandeis career in Residence Life (now Community Living) at a time when we were Campus Life and then went on to passionately guide Student Activities ever since.”

In a similar vein, Pillow Gnanaratnam “came to us having previously served out a ‘deanship’ at Bellermine

University, moving on to working as the Director for Off-Campus Student Services and serving as Assistant Director for Orientation at Northeastern University,” Adams wrote. Pillow Gnanaratnam joined Brandeis “to lend her talents toward growing our ICC into its current and appreciated structure.”

With Brandeis’ recent hires, including Sexual Assault Services and Pre-

vention Specialist Sheila McMahon and two new positions created in the African and Afro-American Studies Department, veteran Brandeis employees have taken on additional responsibilities. Students who know Grimes and Pillow Gnanaratnam may feel more comfortable, though any problems or benefits created by the restructuring of the Office of the Dean of Students are yet to be seen. photos from internet source

promotion Grimes and Pillow-Gnanaratnam will take on new responsibilities in their new

roles as assistant deans.

March 7, 2014

NEWS 3

The Brandeis Hoot

Cafe Science discusses the ups and downs of chemistry

By Rachel Dobkin Staff

Sometimes science can seem impossible to learn, or can seem exceedingly boring. This past Monday, learning chemistry was presented in a different kind of manner, with stock market jokes and tapas at Solea restaurant for the second annual installment of Cafe Science. The discussion, entitled “Up-and-Down Chemistry: Oscillations, Chaos, Waves, and Patterns” was led by , the Henry F. Fischbach Chair of Chemistry. Approximately thirty people attended the event, most of whom were faculty or adults.

Biology professor Jim Haber, who has been friends with Epstein since they were undergraduate students at Harvard University, introduced the presentation. Dr. Haber first organized Cafe Science in Spring 2012 after seeing a similar event at another university. He consults with faculty from the chemistry, physics, biology, neuroscience, psychology, math, and computer science departments and organizes a schedule annually for the events.

Cafe Science is an organized effort to engage the local community in a conversation about cutting-edge scientific research. It is open to everybody, students and faculty alike.

Presentation topics range from de-

signing antibiotics, to neuroscience, to geometry. During this session, Dr. Epstein focused his discussion on chemical oscillation, which is defined as a periodic or nearly periodic variation of concentrations of one or chemical species in a reaction.

Dr. Epstein has taught at Brandeis for 43 years, but has never presented his expertise at a tapas restaurant before. He started the presentation by describing chemical oscillation, and then gave a demonstration. He mixed together three clear solutions in a beaker and then mixed it; within a minute it changed color mysterious from clear to light yellow to dark blue, and oscillated between these colors. Finally it settled to dark blue.

He went on to explain that until the 1960s, most scientists did not think

that these reactions were possible. He provided the audience with plenty of background information regarding the discovery of oscillation reactions, which were all stumbled upon accidentally.

Oscillation reactions were first discovered in the seventeenth century when the famous scientist Robert Boyle noticed flashes of light upon oxidizing Phosphorus. Other scientists dallied in the field, but it was not viewed as legitimate in the world of science. A model of oscillation was introduced, comparing fox and rabbit populations: the foxes eat the rabbits, the rabbit population declines, the fox population declines, the rabbit population increases again, and the cycle continues. This is comparable to the concentration of one chemi-

cal dwindling, the other increasing, and then oscillating until concentration equilibrium is reached (when the concentration of all of the chemicals is the same). However, most scientists around the world did not take this model seriously. In 1964, Russian scientist Anatol Zhabotinsky published a paper on the subject for the first time in history, and eventually came to Brandeis where the first chemical oscillator was designed in 1981 (which creates chemical oscillations that are deliberate rather than accidental, like those before it in history).

Epstein tries to comprehend what happens on a molecular level during chemical oscillations and what species have to react to create them.

However, according to him, this is no easy feat--there are many reactants,

photo courtesy brandeis

whose reactions can be converted into many differential equations that you must integrate on a computer (in short, a lot of very complicated calculus).

Chemical oscillation has several very important implications, some of which can be seen through fields of medicine and technology. One instance in which coupled oscillators can be applied to the biomedical sciences is neuron signalling. A possibility on the technology frontier is the creation of “soft robots” from an oscillating catalyst gel; one concentration would shrink and the other would grow, causing the structure to crawl. Epstein’s lab has also done some work with chemical oscillators creating erasable chemical memory.

“Chemical oscillations can cause beautiful patterns both in solution and on materials,” Epstein said. “I think to some extent, there is an aesthetic aspect that draws some of us to this field.”

In the future, Dr. Haber hopes to cultivate more interest in “what scientists do, what they think about, and the exciting world-class research being conducted at Brandeis” in both the Brandeis and Waltham communities in a way that is “accessible and easy to understand.” Cafe Science convenes on the first Monday of every month from 6 P.M. to 7 P.M., and costs ten dollars for admission and a drink.

Max Blumenthal delivers keynote address for IAW BLUMENTHAL, from page 1

and Jewish Voice for Peace, the week of events was brought to the Brandeis campus to engage students, faculty and staff in discussion about discriminatory policies in Israel that disproportionately target Palestinians, Arab-Israelis and African-immigrants, according to Aya Aziz ’16, member of the Brandeis SJP. Aziz’s opening remarks also spoke to the importance of deconstructing the word “apartheid.”

“The only way we can engage in discourse is if it’s inclusive discourse,” Aziz said. “In breaking down the word ‘apartheid,’ we want to understand what it means and all of its dimensions and to include all voices on this issue, especially those who don’t agree with the use of the word.”

Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) is an international series of events held in cities and campuses all over the world.

According to the organization, the aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system to bolster support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign. The first Israel Apartheid week was held in 2005, and since then the series of events has garnered much controversy and has developed a plethora of literature and analysis to challenge the alleged apartheid.

Formerly an author at The Daily Beast and Al Akhbar, Max Blumenthal is an American journalist, filmmaker, blogger and author of national best-seller “Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party” and “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.” Blumenthal previously worked for Media Matters for America, a politically progressive media watchdog group that is dedicated to analyzing and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media. He has also created several short video reports, featuring interviews with attendees from the

Republican National Convention in July 2007 as well as footage of youth in Jerusalem in June 2009, shortly before President Obama’s Cairo address.

Blumenthal’s talk focused on his recently published book, “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.”

The book is a product of the last four years of his research, including spending more than one year living in both Israel and Palestinian territories to report on Israel-Palestine at a transitional phase. He said that he mainly focuses on 2009 and what has happened since Israel has elected what he claims to be “the most rightwing government in its history.”

Blumenthal talked about conditions for Palestinians and Sudanese refugees living under what he claims is a “questionable democratic state.”

He compares “Goliath” to a New York Times bestseller, “My Promised Land,” written by Israeli author Ari Shavit, who is praised for honoring Zionism while simultaneously criticizing its founding sins. In his book, Shavit acknowledges what happened in 1947 and 1948 as “criminal” and that it was “ethnic cleansing to expel 750,000 people.” Blumenthal agrees with Shavit, specifically in his regard to Israel’s form of government.

“Shavit addresses Israel as a modern, normal democracy when for its Palestinian citizens, and for the Palestinians who live under Israeli control, it’s not,” Blumenthal said.

As a middle-class Jew growing up in Washington, D.C., Blumenthal said most of his classmates were forced to take an uncompromising stand, where the choice was “Israel: right or wrong.”

“I decided to question things, but I was forced to do so. Most Americans aren’t. And so it’s very hard for most Americans to develop these seeds of doubt in their minds or to get information,” he said.

Blumenthal spoke about the presence of university campuses influencing the future of this debate.

“It’s increasingly here and on campuses across the country that the fu-

ture will be determined, where there is still enough political and physical space to make that change unlike in Israel-Palestine,” Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal spent some time speaking about the concerted, organized attempts that have tried to stop his book tours from happening, specifically about the students at Brandeis who reached out to him via social media. One Brandeis student called him an “anti-Semite” multiple times via Twitter, and another student, Joshua Nass ’14, received national attention from The Jewish Press for offering $5,000 of his own money to challenge apartheid promoters.

“What’s disturbing to me is that this campaign of incitement, of attacking people with what are basically ethnic slurs, is being encouraged. It’s a top-down campaign, and we’re seeing this all around the country, to suppress discussion and to prevent the free flow of information and to undermine protected speech as well as our freedoms as Americans,” Blumenthal said.

Lauren Jappe ’14, member of Brandeis SJP, said that Brandeis Israel Apartheid Week was initially not supported by the Brandeis community and has continued to receive harsh criticism from students, faculty and staff.

“Any events that reveal a commitment to the Palestinian narrative bring about hateful messages,” Jappe said. “But the fact that much of this is through the Internet speaks to how much braver people can be behind their computers rather than in person.”

Jappe said that she and other members of her club have received hateful text messages, Facebook messages, emails and more. She believes Israel Apartheid Week is just the beginning of a discussion that needs to continue, especially in breaking down the meaning of the word “apartheid.”

“I think the Brandeis community needs to stop being so focused on being comfortable with what’s going on in the Middle East. We use the word

‘apartheid’ because we believe it’s a real situation and it’s a loud word that gets people’s attention. It’s important that people stop prioritizing their own comfort over the injustices that are being done to the Palestinians. I encourage the Brandeis community to challenge the comfortable narratives and start looking outward as opposed to looking inward,” Jappe said.

Other Jewish student groups on campus disagree with the use of the word “apartheid.” Howie Stanger ’15, member of J Street U, voiced concern over the occupation of the West Bank, but said he does not believe that apartheid is the correct word to represent what’s happening.

“We do not agree with the characterization of Israel as an apartheid state; we see that statement as both inaccurate and incendiary, and believe it inhibits productive dialogue on this issue,” Stanger said.

Stanger also believes that alterna-

tive perspectives to such a controversial topic should be welcomed with open arms, but that such harsh language should not be used.

“A large majority of this school has grown up hearing very traditional pro-Israel, Zionist narrative (including myself), and SJP via Israel Apartheid Week is presenting an alternate narrative that directly challenges these narratives. I hope that we can figure out how to have a productive conversation in spite of these differences of opinion and ideology. Unfortunately, that has not necessarily been the case so far, both because of the polarizing nature of Israel Apartheid Week and the vitriolic reactions to it on Facebook and elsewhere from some members of the pro-Israel community,” Stanger said.

Brandeis Israel Apartheid Week will end on Friday, March 7 at 3 p.m.in the Peace Circle for a Peace Vigil for Palestinians in Yarmouk Refugee Camp.

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photos by sindhura sonnathi/the hoot

4 ADVERTISEMENTS

The Brandeis Hoot

March 7, 2014

Community pledges to avoid the r-word

By Dana Trismen Editor

“Nothing about the r-word has anything to do with people who have developmental disabilities,” said Kristina S., an individual from Watch City Self Advocates. Kristina spoke passionately about not using the r-word (retarded) during Thursday night’s event, “Spread the Word to End the Word.”

Brandeis Buddies and SPECTRUM, two Waltham Group programs that work with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, cohosted the event. After an active week of tabling and persuading Brandeis students to pledge not to use the rword, a closing ceremony took place in Pearlman on Thursday. The event featured a speech from State Repre-

sentative Tom Sannicandro, words from self-advocates, and short film clips.

“We are so much more than that word. We are artists and dancers and singers and sisters and brothers and fathers and friends … we are just as smart and capable as everybody else,” said Kristina.

While “Spread the Word to End the Word” is a national campaign, Leah Igdalsky ’14 had the idea to bring the event to campus. “The idea for this event came from my internship this past summer with Special Olympics International in Washington, D.C. I heard that many other schools across the country were holding [these] events, encouraging people to treat others with respect and dignity,” said Igdalsky. “I felt that as a school committed to social justice, this was something that we needed to do!”

Throughout the week, Igdalsky and others banded together to get sig-

natures for their banners. Over two banners were filled with signatures, agreeing to never use the r-word.

“The volunteers who tabled reported that people were generally receptive, and many people said that they either had been involved with something like this in high school or that they had never heard about it before and wanted to learn more,” said Igdalsky.

Overall, Igdalsky’s goal for this small movement on campus was simple: “I hope that this event will make the Brandeis community aware that people with disabilities are not defined by their disabilities,” she said.

“They deserve the same respect as anyone else, and that starts by using language that is not offensive or isolating.”

Sannicandro, who is both the State Representative for Framingham and Ashland and a Ph.D. candidate at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, spoke primarily about

history in terms of people with disabilities. Starting with the eugenics movement, he moved forward, discussing how people with disabilities won the right to an public school education and more. He argued that Massachusetts actually led the nation in this fight, as this state was the first in 1972 to say that people with disabilities have the right to education.

The federal law followed.

“You’re at a part in history where times are changing very rapidly, but you need to understand what happened before,” said Sannicandro. This issue is close to his heart, as his son has Down syndrome.

Sannicandro discussed the power of an education for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Moving forward, he hopes it will become possible for everyone to also achieve a college education. Currently, Massachusetts has a program where people with disabilities can at-

tend public college, state universities like UMass, and community colleges.

“In college you learn a lot academically and socially … we’re seeing these people transform,” Sannicandro said.

“They’re doing phenomenal stuff.”

In terms of using the r-word, Sannicandro reacted strongly. “I find the word so offensive myself that it does something physically to me when I hear it,” he said.

After Sannicandro’s speech, event coordinators showed clips of people with disabilities discussing various topics, such as “what would you change about yourself ” or “what do you like about yourself.” The event closed with the individuals speaking from Watch City Self Advocates, a group that is part of Greater Waltham Arc. “Nobody should use the r-word,” said Joe O. enthusiastically. “It’s not right.”

photos by dana trismen/the hoot

outspoken Watch City Self Advocates members argued for themselves about why the r-

word is disrespectful. Speaking, from left to right, are Marci S., Kristina S. and Joe O.

Silva discusses Brazil’s history of protests HEADLINE, from page 1

Studies and the founder of the Brazilian Forum for Public Safety. Dr. Leeds discussed the police brutality that is traditional in Brazil, especially in poorer communities, and the current government’s failure to address it. She also criticized Western media, saying, “By focusing on the amorphous and leaderless nature of the protests, the media completely ignored the social context” represented by the diverse nature of the protests. “Very little attention was paid [by Western media] to the protests in the favelas [slums], where people experience crime and police violence on a daily basis,” Leeds also said.

Next came Brandeis’ own Dr. Richard Lockwood, adjunct lecturer at The Heller School, who focused on the historical context of the protests, specifically Brazil’s uncanny ability to avoid food shortages and starvation, which Lockwood saw as evidence of Brazilians’ determination.

To this point, Lockwood called Brazil “a modern miracle … you won’t see hungry people in today’s protests.”

The third speaker was Natalicia Tracy, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center. Tracy described her discussions with Brazil-

ian immigrant communities in the United States about the 2013 protests, including how some immigrants felt disconnected from the protests and others had their patriotism renewed.

“The community wanted to know: Who are these protesters?” said Tracy.

“Where do they come from? The city?

The favelas?” Tracy was also interested in how the protests were addressing the prejudice against Afro-Brazilians and other ethnic minorities that has been common in the country.

Finally, the audience heard from Ed Morata, Partner and CEO at Eneas Morata, who provided a perspective of business. Morata, who has over 20 years of experience in the banking industry, also had some of the harshest criticism of the Brazilian government. “There has been recognizance [by the government] that recent economic growth did not translate into strong social development, but the government has failed to step forward and provide a platform of discussion,” Morata said.

This was the point that ended up dominating the following discussion moderated by Silva. The panelists agreed that there was a disconnect between the administration of current President Dilma Rousseff and the public, which could be traced back to previous President Lula da

photo courtesy brandeisnow

Silva. President Rousseff, who served as Silva’s chief of staff during the latter’s near 10 years in office, helped her predecessor with anti-poverty programs that have since lifted almost 25 million people into a new middle class. However, the Rousseff government is seen as failing to invest in social programs and infrastructure to

support this new middle class.

The panelists, Morata in particular, also criticized Brazilians as a people who do not “have an idea of where to go in the modern world.” Leeds continued to focus on police brutality in Brazil, as it is an institution that has avoided reform. After about 25 minutes of discussion, the panel broke for

a recess, then reconvened for a short Q & A with the panelists. The questions were mostly for clarification, and the panelists primarily reiterated their belief that Brazil has great potential for reform, but as of now, there is no platform for the government and the people to meet and discuss how to move Brazil forward.

March 7, 2014

NEWS 5

The Brandeis Hoot

Muslim students ask for conversation and respect VANDALISM, from page 1

theft, as the plexiglass around the sign was unscrewed, the sign was cut with an Exacto knife and the plexiglass was screwed back into place.

This isn’t the first incident the MSA has dealt with. In the 2009-2010 school year, the MSA suite itself was vandalized, as the door was always unlocked for any student who wanted a space to relax or pray in, similar to other religious groups.

“A student, or students, came in and vandalized the suite, threw around everything, broke things, from Imam Talal’s office. They took his Qur’an. On top of it being a sacred book, it had a lot of his notes in it,” Zoha Hussain ’14, a current member of the club, said. The notes were very important for the Imam, as he used them in speaking before Friday prayers each week.

“It was difficult to come into an MSA that felt like it already had an image on campus that felt maybe threatening, or as if people could vandalize the space. We are just like other students on campus. It made me more inclined to help show what Islam is on campus. As students, we should be respected as the other religious groups on campus,” Hussain said.

In a less severe, yet still significant, act, signs for Islam Awareness Week were removed overnight in both Spring 2012 and Spring 2013. Students had taped paper signs in the shape of “IAW” on the brick wall of Usdan overnight, and by morning they were removed.

“No one would talk to me directly.

The rest of those signs were up there but nothing happened to them,” Hussain said. They later realized that the signs weren’t allowed without signatures, but after not getting a real response, Hussain felt that there was discrimination, especially since there were many other signs still on the bricks for weeks after.

“We’re not trying to blame people, these things aren’t our priority to

deal with. Events like Islam Awareness Week are for everyone. We want to have students who don’t have the knowledge to learn about Islam as well. How do we get people to come to events, people who have negative perceptions? We just want to show through our actions who we are as Brandeis MSA,” Cheema said.

Although by themselves the incidents may not seem particularly horrifying, the students worry about what they might mean. They wonder how the MSA is perceived on campus and why other community members would choose to target their organization. “For us it’s hard because we don’t know if people are actually targeting us. There is that confusion, and we’re unsure how comfortable we can be on campus,” Cheema said.

The main purpose of the MSA is raise awareness, involve the community and give Muslim students a resource on campus.

The MSA has participated in multiple interfaith events on campus, coordinating with Hillel and BAASA. The Brandeis community has largely been supportive and respectful toward students of the MSA, including holding a peace vigil after the MSA suite was vandalized a few years ago.

“People don’t realize that dialogue can lead to actual education and can open their eyes, and also our eyes, to so many things. What does vandalism really do?” Hussain said.

Hussain and the other members of the MSA want to make sure students feel comfortable joining the MSA. They recalled how the MSA became a home for them, and helped them achieve a balance between faith and school. Participating in their faith has helped them to remember what is important in life, other than just school work and friends.

The MSA suite itself is difficult to find, as it is located in the lower floor of Usdan, past a bathroom and two sets of doors. While the card access may have been necessary to ensure vandalism does not occur inside their space again, the members worry that the presence may deter students from

photos by emily stott/the hoot

leadership Treasurer Yasmin Yousof and co-presidents Alina Cheema and Ayesha Malik are passionate about being part of the Muslim

Students Association.

feeling comfortable. Space on campus may be difficult to come by for many student organizations, but Cheema and Malik expressed that a larger and more accessible space would be appreciated.

“Our faith is beautiful, and we don’t preach any type of violence.

We would always respect every other faith,” Hussain said.

“I hope people realize the importance of having an MSA. I would love if anyone would come to Khutbah one day and listen to what Imam Talal lectures on, it usually has to do with equality or social justice and tolerance. We are all human beings and we should live happily together. We are a very peaceful organization, very accepting and very open to have dialogue,” Hussain said.

Retirement plan popular among staff RETIREMENT, from page 1

buyouts are totally optional. He wrote, “No one is being asked to step down.” In earlier emails to The Hoot, Ellen de Graffenreid, senior vice president for communications, also stated that the overall goal is always improving the university and serving students better.

“We are generally trying to be as efficient as possible with our resources so that we can provide a great education for Brandeis students,” de Graffenreid said.

While Kunz reports that selecting retirement was her personal choice, she can see how the proposed plan could be difficult for others at the university.

“I always felt it was a choice but for me if I was 62, I would probably have said no, if I felt secure in my position … at 62 I would find it a much harder decision,” she said. In discussing the projected $6.5 billion deficit, she said, “Depending upon what your position is, and how much you think you are needed, you may feel vulnerable.”

Others agree, such as Professor Gordon Fellman (SOC), who was previously quoted by both The Boston Globe and The Hoot.

“Some of my colleagues wonder if they don’t take the plan then they

will get fired,” Fellman said. “Jobs out there right now are scarce, so this seems like kind of a gamble. ” Kunz states that a surprising number of staff members have selected to retire via this program.

“You’ll see lots and lots of people, one of my friends is 79, and he’s taken it. So there’s an array of people … I don’t know if the university expected such a high response, or whether they hoped for such a high response, but I’m really impressed with the number of people,” she said.

For Kunz, retirement will be a big change. From looking after nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometers to her constant involvement in the hazardous helium fill process, she has served the chemistry department dutifully and witnessed great technological changes as time passed. But the time has come for her to move on.

“The University provided us with new computers for chemistry teaching labs, and we’re getting the rest, and it will be very nice to leave with all of that taken care of,” she said.

“And I’ve always been the interface for this software necessary for chemistry and biology students, but now they’ll have to find somebody else.”

But Kunz won’t be further than a phone call away from her alma mater.

“I’ll help them. I live in Boston, and they call me up,” she said with a smile.

6 The Brandeis Hoot

ARTS, ETC.

March 7, 2014

Oscars 2014: a night to be remembered

By Joanna Murphy Special to the Hoot

Oscars 2014 turned out to be one of the most successful Oscars this country has seen. The 86th awards ceremony featured stiff competition. “Gravity” took away many awards such as for best director (Alfonso Cuaron), best cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), film editing (Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger), original score (Steven Price), sound editing (Glenn Freemantle), sound mixing (Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro) and for visual effects (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould).

“Gravity” grossed 270 million in North America alone and was the most successful film of the year.

Other big winners were Matthew McConaughey for best actor in “Dallas Buyers Club.” I thought he deserved it but many people believed that Leonardo DiCaprio was snubbed out of yet another Oscar. “Wolf of Wall Street,” however, was not the type of film that deserved an Oscar, and I think that McConaughey’s performance was astounding. Best picture went to “12 Years a Slave,” which several of my classmates believed to be the film of the generation. I have yet to see it, but after hearing the rave reviews, it is definitely on my must-see list. Best actress went to Kate Blanchett for her performance in “Blue Jasmine.” Best supporting actress went to Lupita Nyong’o in “12 Years a Slave.” Jared Leto took home the prize for best supporting actor in “Dallas Buyers Club.”

Now that you know who won, let’s talk about the good stuff, and by that I mean host Ellen Degeneres. She was amazing, and the reason I believe

selfie of the year Film’s biggest stars gathered around Bradley Cooper for what became

photo from internet source

possibly one of the most widely-circulated selfies in history.

this year’s Oscars to be the best yet.

Her witty jokes kept rolling in and the crowd kept laughing. It was like watching an Ellen Degeneres show marathon. Degeneres even ordered pizza for the audience and takers included none other than Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lawrence, and Bradley Cooper.

Along with the amazing presence of pizza at the ceremony, Ellen jumped into the audience to take a selfie with some of the most famous faces in Hollywood. Many people believe that the selfie that was tweeted with Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie and other stars was too much social media. “From a social

media standpoint, it was a huge win,” Steve Minichini said. “But it was really geared for social media. It made for a boring live telecast.”

However the gambit appeared to have worked, with an average of 43 million total viewers tuned in to T.V’s biggest awards show. That was 6% higher than last year’s much criticized ceremony hosted by “Family Guy” overseer Seth MacFarlane. ABC estimated that almost 72 million viewers watched at least six minutes of the program. During the telecast, 11.2 million tweets poured forth from 2.8 million unique users, according to Social Guide — a 75% increase from last

year’s activity. Degeneres’s selfie was the first picture to be retweeted more than 2 million times, briefly crashing the the microblogging platform.

Steve Minichini, chief innovation and growth officer at ad firm TargetCast, said of the star-studded selfie, “That was really gold, that was beautiful.”

“It was a great example of how social media can be incorporated into a live telecast, encouraging viewers to tune into the show and take part in it,” said Brad Adgate, an analyst for Horizon Media in New York.

Despite all the great press, however, I think some movies of this year were

sub par. In past years, films such as “American Hustle” wouldn’t have even been nominated for an Oscar. It had a predictable plot, with only amazing acting to save it. Many films were just not as mind blowing or on par with some of the winners, such as “12 Years a Slave.”

So this puts another show in the books—the best one yet—and one of the most well received. The movies were amazing, the host was spectacular and the entertainment was superb.

Another highlight was Idina Menzel’s performance of the famous “Frozen” song, “Let It Go.” With the Oscars just ending, I’m in the movie mood.

This Week In Photos

photos by marian siljeholm/the hoot

March 7, 2014

ARTS, ETC. 7

The Brandeis Hoot

Lecture holds homoerotic view of Stanley Kubrick photos

By Shikha Chandarana Special to the Hoot

Outside Mandel 303, a table full of cookies and various hot beverages welcomed me into a lecture titled “Kubrick’s Men’s Pictures.” The lecture discussed exactly what it claimed, the pictures of men that Stanley Kubrick took in his days before he was an Academy Award nominee.

Stanley Kubrick was a universally loved and critically acclaimed director of films such as “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “A Clockwork Orange” and “Dr. Strangelove,” so a look into his work as a photographer and a documentary filmmaker before his rise to fame was an interesting topic to discuss. The speaker, Richard Rambuss, is a professor of English at Brown University and specializes in Renaissance poetry, yet he seemed to have a lot of expertise on the topic of Kubrick’s films and their portrayal of masculinity. There were times that his tone became slightly monotonous, but the material was engaging enough for that distraction to be easily ignored.

Most of the lecture dealt with the portrayal of hyper-sexualized masculinity in the pictures Kubrick used to take during his time working as a photographer for a magazine in New York. Rambuss had a variety of pictures showing how Kubrick emphasized the male form while paying little to no attention to the feminine form

stanley kubrick Known for his films “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “A Clockwork Orange” and “Dr Strangelove,” Kubrick was an Academy Award-winning director.

in the same pictures. In most of the pictures that featured boxer Walter Cartier, he was shown in various stages of nudity while the other figures around him are completely clothed.

In one photograph, the boxer rows a boat while not completely clothed with a modestly dressed woman behind him; the main subject of the photo is the boxer, while the woman is treated as a prop in the background.

The use of light and camera angles also emphasize the masculine aspects of the photographs, which made for an interesting close reading into the mind of Kubrick as he honed his art for the next few years to come.

His first documentary, “The Day of the Fight” was a major source of discussion. The short documentary takes us into the life of Cartier for a

day, right before his fight. This film had no female characters and the boxer spent most of the film without his shirt on. Rambuss spoke a little about the implied homoerotic undertones between the boxer and his twin brother who were shown to share a twin bed and dress completely alike throughout the film. Kubrick tried to show a domestic household between the twin brothers by adding a dog to the mix, showing a more wholesome family life. The scenes of the movie that were shown (after much technical difficulty) were usually met with laughter due to the antiquated style of music or the hilarity of the situations that became obvious after listening to Rambuss’ close reading of the symbols in the film.

One of my favorite aspects of the

lecture was the comparison of the style and themes used by Kubrick in this film and how similar themes can be seen in his later films that were more popular. The use of masculinity and the male form, primarily in combat sports like boxing and battle, as a major symbol is something that is common in most of his future work, like “Spartacus.” He also emphasized the importance of male grooming in “The Day of the Fight,” exemplified in a scene where Cartier applies Vaseline to his face (something that most of us found extremely amusing), which has a direct correlation to scenes in “Spartacus” and “A Clockwork Orange.”

Professor Rambuss’ expertise on the subject became more evident in the wildly fascinating ques-

photo from internet source

tion and answer session, where the knowledgeable audience asked very thoughtful questions to him, and he responded to all of them coherently and cleverly by citing a large number of references. This was definitely one of the better interactive sessions I have experienced.

“The lecture held an interesting view of the pictures of Stanley Kubrick—dark, serious, engrossing and full of homoerotic desire. What more could you ask for?” said Gaby Yeshua ’17, and I have to agree. Although there were numerous technical difficulties and the lecture got a little tiresome at some points, the overall experience was definitely very rewarding. As a fan of movies and photographs in general, I was satisfied at the end of it.

Boston contemporary dance intrigues audience

By Lisa Petrie Staff

I took the hike over to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) this weekend to see a contemporary dance show, and it was definitely worth the trip. The ICA, which is located in a huge warehouse-like building right by the water in Boston, is currently surrounded by construction but will hopefully be clear of rubble soon. The building itself is a work of art, a beautiful contemporary building with a huge art installation window at the front, poured concrete floors and an elevator the size of a room.

The show was about an hour and a half long, with two different sections, “Dark Lark” and “The Garden.”

The first section was performed by five dancers, and the second by four.

Kate Weare, the artistic director of the troupe, explained the meaning behind each piece before the show, which really helped me understand her vision. She explained that the first piece, “Dark Lark,” had been produced to be performed on a stage that jutted out into the audience and was choreographed on a diagonal to the audience. This piece was centered on issues of human sexuality and selfishness. The second piece was more suited to the stage at the ICA and was inspired by the emotions of a human community in the face of nature.

I personally enjoyed “Dark Lark” more. Weare had chosen to have a single cello player, Christopher Lancaster, downstage left, who played all of the music for the piece. The dancers performed in his direction, creating a dialogue between the music and the dance. His playing even created part of the performance, as he used his cello for expressive percussion

and caused smoke to rise from the strings as he sawed away through the faster measures.

This piece definitely utilized props to its advantage. The main female solo was of a woman trying to balance a butterfly on different parts of her body. One of the men wore four-inch, lace-up heels during an all-male partner dance, which was one of my favorite parts of the show. The image of this tall man sauntering on stage and completely dominating the other man was incredibly moving. Kate Weare is amazing at these dichotomous images, inciting a feeling of a woman assuming the role of domineering man but using a male dancer to portray this woman. Kate Weare is somehow able to make the audience understand the struggle for power between the two men as the struggle for a woman to overpower a patriarchal society, while having two men play out this relationship. This allows for the woman to hold a position of power, but simultaneously makes us question why it matters who is the dominant one, and even whether the gender of the two people in the relationship matters. Should there be a definition of relationships between men and women, men and men, women and women?

Weare continues this line of questioning further on in this piece. During another male partner dance, the dancers interestingly balance a line between friendship and romance.

The two men seem almost like brothers, supporting each other and helping each other along, yet they dance like romantic partners. A similar dichotomy is seen in her female partner dance, where the two women support each other and tenderly back up each other’s actions, while also savagely ripping each other apart with fearless

intensity.

Weare explores the contradictory undertones of romantic relationships between men and women as well. Weare’s dancers caress and catch each other while simultaneously commandeering and assaulting each other. A fist clenching an arm is paired with a gentle arm preventing a fall. The subtlety with which the dancers performed Weare’s brilliant choreography brought amazing life to the strange undercurrents of human intimacy, illuminating the faint emotional veins running through our relationships, forcing us to acknowledge the subconscious actions that

make or break romances.

The second, slightly older piece, “The Garden,” definitely held its own compared to “Dark Lark.” The set for this piece was even more impressive than the first piece, with a large tree hanging upside down in one corner and a tree stump in the opposite. The four dancers, who were also in the previous set, interacted in a more acquiescent way, connecting and compromising with each other to form a community. However, under the pressure of nature, three of the dancers gang up against one of the male dancers. The savagery of the dancers is chilling, as two of them leave

the male to die. However, one of the dancer expresses great tenderness and fragility in convincing the others to let the outcast back into their midst.

Overall, Kate Weare’s performance was a moving piece that made the audience question human sexuality, relationships and gender distinctions, shining through brilliant choreography and solid performances by her dancers. People interested in contemporary dance and those who are intrigued by these compelling, current topics should think about attending one of Weare’s performances in the future.

the ica theater Kate Weare, artistic director of her dance troupe, performed pieces that approached human

sexuality, relationships and gender distinctions.

photo from internet source

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The Brandeis Hoot

March 7, 2014

Hoover gives audience chills with excerpt from novel

By Clayre Benzadon Special to the Hoot

On Monday, Mar. 3, I was delighted to have had a break from class and listen to Michelle Hoover come visit Brandeis to read an excerpt from her new novel, “Bottomland.”

Michelle Hoover, author of “The Quickening,” is described by iconic novelist and short story writer Charles Baxter as a writer who “recreates for us a way of life and a set of personalities with solidity of detail.”

If that isn’t enough, Hoover also has a great amount of teaching experience under her belt, having worked at Emerson College, Bucknell University and Boston University (where she currently works) as well as dedicating her time to Boston’s Grub Street, a nonprofit creative writing center that offers a high-level adult education for writing. Grub Street is a novel incubator program Hoover founded. The curriculum consists of a 12-month program where students meet in three-hour-long workshops, headed

by Hoover herself, during which she provides them with feedback on their work and helps them improve their writing skills.

After an impressive introduction, Hoover then stepped in to take over

the show. She began by giving us a brief background of “Bottomland,” which is set shortly after World War I and centers on an isolated GermanAmerican farming family. From the first instance that Hoover began reading the passage from her book, I was already transported into the scene, haunted by the foreboding ambiance that seems to manifest over the beginning of the novel. The “miles of grass and field land,” the gloominess outside “as dark as a cellar” and the narrator’s sister Esther’s “arms and feet bare in the cold” all add to the eerie sensation that one feels while reading this first part of the novel.

The mysterious setting is used to reflect the mystery of Esther’s disappearance. The narrator’s other sisters, Merrill and Agnes, constantly complain that Esther is missing while the narrator, the oldest, tries to remain the strong one, especially because their mother has passed away. However, she feels as though she has let her mother down when she starts to think that she has not appropriately handled the duty as the eldest sister. To give the readers a basic background of Esther’s personality, the narrator characterizes her with a “mushroom-cap of her hair,” as “too quick for her own good” and as having a “terrible imagination.”

The most intense and frightening part of the story is when the narrator comes to check out the upstairs room, which is locked. After pushing to get the door open, we see “the frame popped, the wood cracking” and the inside of the room dark. With a “chair fallen on its leg,” and having it compared to “a broken child” gives us chills as we anticipate what is to come next after seeing “a door closed” and “a hammer fallen.” The narrator tries to ease her mind while surveying the scene by listening to what her father had taught all of his daughters: “Never make too much of something, lest that something make a fool of you.”

The reading ended at a cliffhanger, leaving listeners wanting to know what happens after they set out to find Esther. The audience then had a chance to ask the author some questions. Because the audience was rather small, I was less intimidated than I would usually be and felt more comfortable asking questions. Most of the students asked her for some writing tips, wondering how she masters the skill of creating such unique, and at the same time realistic, dialogue.

Another aspect of her writing that people thought was particularly interesting was the way that Hoover subtly manipulated the setting to match the ominous mood that plays a big fac-

tor in the passage. For instance, she describes the animals in the barn as being restless while the “potatoes in garden were ready to rot.” She provides this description right before she is about to describe her encounter

with the locked, dark room. Giving the readers a warning about what is to come next in the story, small hints of detail actually provide a huge impact to not only this specific passage, but to the book’s main theme as well.

photo from internet source

michelle hoover The novelist came to Brandeis to read an expert of her new book “Bot-

tomland.”

‘Trio Da Kali’ makes global musical connections

By Christa Caggiano Staff

The beautiful thing about attending Brandeis is that a concert given by Trio Da Kali was packed, every seat in Slosberg full of students, professors and Waltham natives. This fact is exemplary because Trio Da Kali is not an ordinary musical ensemble.

It is composed of three famous musicians from the Mande culture of Mali, an African nation just south of Algeria. These performers come from a long line of hereditary musical artisans, called griots. “Da kali” means “to swear an oath,” and represents the griots’ pledge to their art, recalling a time when the griots were advisors to Mali’s pre-colonial rulers. Today, the griot is a historian, a storyteller and a performer, making them vastly important to the Mande culture. Trio Da Kali brings a fresh perspective to this serious societal role. This concert was imbued with life and good intentions.

I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that everyone in the audience was deeply touched by the performance.

I must first acknowledge that it is difficult to write about the music of Mali without imposing a Western cultural gaze. Music has a profoundly different role in our culture than it does in the Mande culture. To analyze it under the lens of a modern American music, or even worse, classical music, would not do this rich tradition justice. Fortunately for the audience, Hawa Kassé Mady Diabaté, the vocalist, was excellent at connecting with the audience without words.

She began with a solo a cappella song, “Soliyo.” Hawa has a powerful, operatic voice. She is obviously extremely well trained, by any cultural standard.

This transitioned to “Namanike,” a song that featured all three members of the trio. Fodé Lassana Diabaté

played the 22-key balafon, an instrument reminiscent of a xylophone.

Mamadou Kouyaté played an instrument called the bass ngoni, a guitarlike instrument that falls somewhere between banjo and a reggae bass.

Together, the trio came together to perform music that was harmonious, playful and accessible. The audience could not help but smile and clap along.

I was particularly struck by the way the performers seemed full of life.

Hawa occasionally danced, when the mood of the song was appropriate.

She seemed to do this out of sheer joy, as it did not feel forced or rehearsed.

It was so refreshing to see performers truly enjoy themselves. While neither Fodé nor Mamadou sang, once in a while they would offer words of encouragement, or moments of vocal harmony. Mamadou and Hawa had a hauntingly beautiful duet in Kanimba. Fodé was a gifted performer. Having a reputation as the country’s foremost balafon player, he had several solos, including Samuel and Sossofoli. His hands seemed to move at an inhuman pace, and he smirked as if he knew how much he transfixed his audience. Despite this, my personal favorite was the bass ngoni.

For lack of a better sentiment, it was so chill. Mamadou was young, barely older than his college audience, but played with the precocity of a great bass player in any rock, blues or reggae band. If you were unable to attend this concert, I highly recommend finding a recording online, if only to hear this spectacular instrument.

The most notable moment, however, was when a man got up from his seat in the back of the hall, and brought money to Hawa. As a classical musician used to an icy divide between performer and audience, I was shocked. I was even more surprised, however, to discover that this is the

trio da kali Trio Da Kali performed at Brandeis at Slosberg as well as in Anthropolgy classes the last Saturday.

correct cultural gesture. The griots expect their audience to show their appreciation through monetary means.

This brave man tore down the barrier the audience had put up, and made the concert even more memorable.

People cheered and tossed money during a particularly thrilling balafon solo. During Lila Bambo, a song celebrating the joy of music, the audience really came alive. Several African audience members went to Hawa, and offered money, but also dance. They danced for a good portion of the song with grace and energy. I was particularly touched when one of the female

dancers hugged Hawa as she sung.

Hawa flashed a radiant smile, and it was so blatant that this music made the dancer extraordinarily happy. It was incredibly touching to be part of such an amazing moment.

More than anything, I am thankful that I attended this concert for the profound way in which I engaged with the Mande culture. Despite not knowing a single word of her language, I was able to understand everything Hawa sang. I also came to comprehend the huge cultural significance that music has in Africa.

While music in America is becom-

photo from internet source

ing a sort of auditory wallpaper, these songs were very personal, and were played in a variety of historical contexts. For example, Kene Bo, a song traditionally sung at weddings, was so much more than the typical American incarnation of a wedding band.

Full of history, advice and emotion, it was a beautiful testament to how important traditions like the griots are. I felt connected to a people half a globe away. Concerts such as these are an important part of the Brandeis cultural community; they transcend lingual and cultural boundaries to prove that music truly unite us.

March 7, 2014

ARTS, ETC. 9

The Brandeis Hoot

BAASA opening ceremony kicks off APAHM

By Michelle Kim Editor

Last Saturday, the Brandeis Asian American Student Association (BAASA) performed its popular annual opening ceremony to celebrate Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.

The event marked the first day of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), which began in 1978 when Congress passed a joint Congressional Resolution to raise awareness of issues that impact Asian Americans. “This year’s overarching theme is ‘Identity,’ specifically reconciling our Asian roots and American upbringing,” Do Dang ’15, president of BAASA, said.

Dang discussed his personal story: “I grew up in a traditional household since my parents had recently emigrated from Vietnam. However, when I entered the first grade, I was placed in an English-speaking class rather than the ESL class that the rest of my peers from kindergarten were placed in. This, coupled with my parents’ absence, since they were constantly busy during the day, caused me to disconnect from my Vietnamese culture. I became more Americanized at the expense of my native tongue, history and heritage. As I explored our theme for APAHM, I found myself

reflecting on my own identity and wondering why I allow my Vietnamese heritage to slip away. This is the goal of our show this year, to examine and come to terms with our identity.

While we would like for everyone to enjoy APAHM, we find it more rewarding when people can take away something more meaningful about themselves and others.”

The ceremony was beautifully set up. Twinkle lights were strung up around the parameter of Levin Ballroom, and tables were decorated with candles, tiny origami swans and glitter. On one wall was a black cutout of the skylines of New York City and Shanghai with a bridge between them.

“I can’t even quantify how much work went into this. Deciding on the backdrop, the wall pieces, the table centerpieces, the design of the programs, the performers, the main performer of the night, how volunteers would help out, figuring out how much funding we need and so much more … planning started in July 2013. The executive board worked extremely hard to pull off this event,” explained Events Coordinator Tifani Ng ’16, regarding the planning process.

Ticket sales skyrocketed this year and so did BAASA’s efforts to put together a memorable opening ceremony. There was a wide array of wonderful performances from students and

professionals alike.

After opening speeches by Dang, Vice President Catherine Cho ’15 and Ng, attendees were treated to a charming video that introduced the eboard members of BAASA. The footage, filmed during one of Brandeis’ snow days and featuring the e-board members playing in the snow, elicited many laughs from the audience.

The first two cultural presentations were Bhangra, a type of dance native to the Punjab region of India, and Bharatnatyam, a classical Indian dance from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Both featured students in colorful costumes and dazzling headpieces. The dances were well-received by the ceremony guests.

Following the dances was Dan Tran, the night’s keynote speaker from Baruch College. Although a bit nervous, he spoke about developing Asian-American identity. It would have been nice to hear a slightly more eloquent speech, but Tran nonetheless made his point.

Yevin Roh, the student government president of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, brought spoken word to the ceremony. Performing “Dear Young Asian Dudes,” “Top 10 List of Messed Up Things Racists Have Said to Me Because I am a ‘Model Minority,’” and “10 Things I Want to Say to an Asian Woman,” Roh targeted Asian racism and embraced both Asian and American

bright and spectacular display Colorful presentations from different Asian cultures provided cultural entertainment for the night.

heritage. His performance was possibly the most well-received one of the night—people were cheering and snapping their fingers seconds after he began his first poem.

The Taiwanese Student Association presented their own Asian-American identity skit, which was largely inspired by the movie “Frozen.” Elsa was an Asian-American who had been targeted as a child for being ethnically Asian. The show was cute, although cheesy, and featured a live cover of “Let It Go” by Frances Chang ’16.

Leila May Pascual ’15 sang for Project Plus One, which aims to support international health clinics in need.

She sang “Reflection” from “Mulan” and “Umbrella” by Rihanna and JayZ, both of which she sang in English and Tagalog as a tribute to the Philippines.

The final dance was a spectacular performance of the Dance of a Thousand Hands, which originates from China. Approximately 20 girls stood behind each other and moved their hands and arms in perfect synchro-

nization, thus creating an illusion of a thousand hands. Their costumes, combined with their perfectly union movements, made the crowd go wild.

The final feature of the night was celebrity Yuri Tag, who performed on the first season of America’s Best Dance Crew with fellow members of Kaba Modern. As they became finalists on the show, they challenged the stereotype that all Asian-Americans are destined to be doctors and lawyers. In doing so, they helped pave the way for Asian-Americans to pursue their own identities.

Tag’s bubbly personality and her dance moves ended the night on a fun, energetic note. Audience and eboard members alike were lined up for an hour to take pictures with Tag as well as to get her signature.

This event is only the first of many events this March. Along with BAASA’s events, many of the other big Asian-American cultural shows happen during this time. This year, SEAC will be hosting AYALA on Mar. 9, and BKSA will be hosting K-Nite on Mar. 15.

photos by katie chin/the hoot

EDITORIALS

10 The Brandeis Hoot

Brandeis community needs to support all discussions

“To acquire wisdom, one must observe.”

Editors-in-Chief Emily Stott Dana Trismen Andrew Elmers Opinion Editor Dani Chasin Sports Editor Theresa Gaffney Arts, Etc. Editor Mia Edelstein Copy Editor Julie Landy Copy Editor Jesse Zeng Photography Editor Jun Zhao Graphics Editor Katie Chin Online Editor Michelle Kim Deputy Arts Editor Jess Linde Deputy News Editor Emily Belowich Deputy News Editor Nate Rosenbloom Senior Editor

Volume 11 • Issue 7 the brandeis hoot • brandeis university 415 south street • waltham, ma

Founded By Leslie Pazan, Igor Pedan and Daniel Silverman

staff

Shota Adamia, Zachary Bellis, Dor Cohen, Rachel Dobkin, Debra Edelman, Mia Edelstein, Roy Fan, Iona Feldman, Ben Fine, Evan Goldstein, Jaye Han, Maya Himelfarb, Eli Kaminsky, Josh Kelly, Shayna Korol, Joe Lanoie, Jess Linde, Vinh Nguyen, Alexandra Patch, Charlie Romanow, Sasha Ruiz, Emily Scharf, Eliana Sinoff, Naomi Soman, Diane Somlo, Sindhura Sonnathi, Jennifer Spencer, Alison Thvedt, Shreyas Warrier, Linjie Xu

Mission As the weekly community student newspaper of Brandeis University, The Brandeis Hoot aims to provide our readers with a reliable, accurate and unbiased source of news and information.

Produced entirely by students, The Hoot serves a readership of 6,000 with in-depth news, relevant commentary, sports and coverage of cultural events. Recognizing that better journalism leads to better policy, The Brandeis Hoot is dedicated to the principles of investigative reporting and news analysis. Our mission is to give every community member a voice.

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March 7, 2014

C

ampus events that are easy to support, such as ’DEIS Impact, have received great promotion from the administration and the student body. Covering straightforward, positive ideals, these events are advertised as an integral part of the Brandeis community. That is undeniably true, and it should be commended that these events receive so much support. Yet there are other important events that the university would rather look past when presenting the school to the greater community.

Over this past week, the controversial topics discussed during the Israeli Apartheid Week have failed to be supported in the same capacity as the more popular functions such as ’DEIS Impact.

President Fred Lawrence was at a conference in Washington, D.C., while Max Blumenthal spoke about the problems with the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

No other administrators attended this event, which student groups put a lot of effort into organizing, and that presents a blatant bias. When prominent speak-

ers come to campus, Brandeis administration should make an effort to be present, to show investment in student passions and to foster respectful discussion.

The administration seems to choose certain student-organized programs over others. All students at Brandeis have the right to propose their ideas in a free and open dialogue, but this favoritism shown for events does not promote the ideals the university claims to represent. Whether or not the university wants to admit to it, some students feel very strongly that the problems in Israel are associated with social justice and want action to be taken and their views to be heard.

Even if the official university response is not there to moderate, the student body needs to be respectful of others’ views. Before the capstone event on Monday, the Facebook event for Israeli Apartheid Week was taken over by negative and even threatening comments.

Many of these students were Brandeis

students, and some people even went so far as to use fake profiles online. Using the semi-anonymity of the internet to impose power over others is wrong.

The students who were so eager to put down opposing views online, yet were not brave enough to then offer their voices to be heard at the events, need to realize that whatever they post online is a representation of the university. A person is still a Brandeis student who represents the university when posting online, no matter what avatar he or she may use. We cannot be so quick to lash out on others when we all compose the same body.

While Israeli Apartheid Week may have been about a controversial topic, this was actually a call for the campus to come together, administration members and students alike. To be a campus that is a claimed leader in social justice, everyone needs to act respectfully and fairly, whether the event be ’DEIS Impact or something on a smaller scale.

sports

March 7, 2014

The Brandeis Hoot 11

Track comes in seventh but with All-UAA performances The Brandeis men’s and women’s track and field teams participated in the University Athletic Association Championships last Saturday, Mar. 1, with both teams coming in seventh.

The Washington University men’s team and the University of Chicago’s women’s team took first place.

Kelsey Whitaker ’16 placed second in the mile, and Amelia Lundkvist ’14 immediately followed her teammate, to take third by less than a second. They won All-UAA honors, and Victoria Sanford ’14 came in fifth.

Top female finishers in the 3,000-meter run were Maddie Dollins ’17 in seventh and Ashley Piccirillo-Horan ’17, who came in 16th. Selen Livas ’17 was ninth in shot put, and Ashley Klein ’16 and Alyssa Fenenbock ’15 came in 16th

and 17th respectively.

Junior Mo Sidique had the best three jumps in the meet, out-jumping his closest opponent by about two feet. He and teammates Adam Berger ’16 and Brian Louis ’17 won more than two-thirds of the men’s 23 points with these three performances.

In the men’s 55-meter dash, Victor Asante ’17 won Brandeis two more points by coming in fifth.

The men’s top mile finishers were Grady Ward ’16 as number nine, Daniel Leon ’17 as number 16 and Matthew Doran ’17 as number 18.

Northeastern University will host the ECAC Championships on Friday, Mar. 7 and Saturday, Mar. 8, which both teams will attend.

photos by matt brondoli/the hoot

Women’s basketball continues to postseason, men fall short

By Charlie Romanow Staff

The women’s basketball team lost their final regular season game at home on Sunday, 68-50 to New York University. The team’s five seniors were honored prior to the Senior Day game, and each played double-digit minutes in the contest.

University Athletic Association rival NYU began the game on an 11-2 run. Brandeis came back within four at 13-9 but no closer. The Judges could not overcome the 31-17 halftime deficit, although their performance improved in the second half, only being outscored by four in the final 20 minutes.

Leading the seniors was Nicolina Vitale ’14 with eight points, two steals and a game-high nine rebounds.

Janelle Rodriguez ’14 had four points, four rebounds and two assists. Kasey Dean ’14 had three points, three rebounds and a team-high three assists.

Fellow seniors Julia Scanlon ’14 and Angela Miller ’14 contributed off of the bench with seven points and eight rebounds, respectively. Six of Miller’s rebounds were on the offensive glass, and she contributed two blocks as well. Underclassmen Paris Hodges ’17 and Niki Laskaris ’15 tied for a teamhigh 10 points. Hodges added six re-

bounds. The Violets’ Kaitlyn Read and Riley Wurtz had 11 and 10 points respectively. Read and Melissa Peng had seven rebounds apiece. Peng led the game with five assists.

NYU shot 39 percent for the game as Brandeis trailed behind at 33.9 percent. The Violets made 10 three pointers while Brandeis made only one.

NYU was 12-14 from the free throw line. The Judges could not capitalize on their 22 foul shots, shooting only 50 percent from the line. The home team’s shooting improved from 24.1 percent in the first half to outshooting NYU in the second half 44.4 to 40 percent.

Dean has been named to the AllUAA Second Team after receiving Honorable Mention recognition last year. Vitale and Hodges each earned Honorable Mention status. Vitale left the game with 53 career blocks, fifth in school history.

NYU finished second in the conference at 9-5 in the UAA and 20-5 overall. Fifth-ranked Washington University in St. Louis won the conference at 13-1 in conference and 23-2 overall.

Both teams have made the NCAA Division III Tournament. NYU will face the University of New England, and Wash U. will play University of Northwestern-St. Paul, with both games on Friday, Mar. 7. Brandeis finished the regular season fourth in the conference at 7-7, and 13-12 overall.

The women continued into the postseason in the Eastern College

Athletic Conference (ECAC) New England Quarterfinals. The Judges defeated Emmanuel College 64-55 on Emmanuel’s home court in Boston on Wednesday evening. The ECAC Tournament featured eight New England teams who had successful seasons but were not chosen for the select NCAA National Tournament. Many players fared well for Brandeis, but the team was led by Dean and Vitale, who each marked career-highs in what could have been their final collegiate games.

Brandeis had already beaten the Saints, the first ranked team in the tournament, earlier this season in November when Emmanuel was nationally ranked. The Judges, the lastranked team in the competition, did not get off to a hot start in the first half, shooting 26.5 percent and turning the ball over 14 times. One bright spot was their long-range shooting, for which they were 4-5. The Saints were 0-3 from three. The teams fought back and forth in the half exchanging leads eight times, with either team’s largest lead only being four by Emmanuel. Only one Brandeisian was able to make multiple field goals. Emmanuel’s Britni Mikulanecz had eight points and eight rebounds on 4-6 shooting. She left the game with an injury with only seconds left in the first.

The Saints went into halftime with a 30-27 lead.

Emmanuel broke out in the second half on an 8-2 run to lead 38-29, their largest lead of the game. Brandeis

fought back to take leads on layups

by Miller and then Vitale. Down by three with 10 minutes remaining, the Judges dominated for the next 7:30.

They came out with a 16-0 run, leading 57-44 with 4:02 remaining in the game. Five different players scored during the streak. Vitale, Miller and Hodges each had three rebounds during the run to keep the ball out of Emmanuel’s hands. The Saints came back to within eight points, but the Judges did not retreat. Brandeis shot 53.6 percent in the half, including 60 percent from three-point range. Emmanuel shot only 34.3 percent, making one of 12 from three and missing all eight free throw attempts in the half.

Vitale notched her third doubledouble with 12 points and a careerhigh 14 rebounds. She scored 10 points in the second half. Fellow senior Dean had a career-high nine assists to complement her eight points in a game-high 34 minutes of action.

Hodges, Jackson and Samantha Mancinelli ’15 joined Dean with eight points. Hodges had eight rebounds as well. Emmanuel’s Lena Negri and Jennifer Bujnowski scored in doubledigits. Vanessa Bramante pulled in eight rebounds.

Brandeis made a season-high seven three pointers, holding the Saints to only one. They shot 38.7 percent overall, slightly ahead of Emmanuel’s 36.6 percent. Emmanuel led in forced turnovers, points off turnovers, sec-

ond chance points, points in the paint, fast break points and bench points but fell short in statistic that matters most, total points. They finish the season 198.

The 14-12 Judges advance to their third ECAC New England semifinals and first since 2005. They will face 1711 Smith College in Beverly, Mass. on Saturday, Mar. 8 at 6 p.m. The other semifinal features Framingham State University against Endicott College.

The men’s basketball team finished their season with a 92-53 blowout defeat of NYU at home on Senior Day. The team’s six seniors scored 87 of their points. They end the regular season with the same record as the women at 13-12, but only sixth place in the UAA at 5-9. They did not receive a postseason berth. The second ranked Wash U. men’s team will play Wilmington College on Friday in the NCAA Division III Tournament. Emory University receives a first-round bye in the tournament and will play on Saturday.

Gabriel Moton ’14 earned a spot on the All-UAA Second team. Ben Bartoldus ’14 and Derek Retos ’14 earned Honorable Mention placement. Retos finished toward the top of the school record book in three-pointers made, three-point percentage and free-throw percentage. Youri Dascy ’14 sits near the top in field-goal percentage and blocked shots. In addition to the previously mentioned players, Ruben Kanya ’14 and Connor Arnold ’14 were honored prior to the team’s final game.

12 The Brandeis Hoot

opinion

March 7, 2014

Why is DCL so eager to get students off campus?

By Andrew Elmers Editor

CAs have to decorate their halls and make it a point of their existence that bulletinboards and doors cannot go without clever themes and punny memes up and down the floor. Each semester carries with it a new theme relevant to the residents of the dorm and their position on the path to eventually graduate.

For my sophomore dorm, this means that the bulletinboards are chock-full of fact sheets and maps of potential locales and opportunities to study abroad at some point in our junior year.

While these are interesting to browse and ponder about, it leads to a larger question.

As multiple sophomores begin to hear back on their study abroad applications and head off to Facebook to tell the world that they will soon become globetrotters, I am reminded of the Department of Community Living’s blatant promotion of study abroad. In addition to using a good portion of available space to advertise ways to get out of Waltham for a semester, there have even been info sessions put on by DCL that work in agreement with official study abroad policies. It is nice to see two separate university departments work together on something as exciting to students as studying abroad, as they should, because it is mutually beneficial to both.

While the Office of Study Abroad obviously gets more students to apply for programs, DCL gets the unseen benefit of more students being away for a semester and not having to provide housing to them. Everyone has heard over the past few weeks that university housing is not guaranteed for rising juniors and seniors but that everyone

photo from internet source

who wants to live on campus is eventually placed somewhere. As a fairly good portion of juniors choose to study abroad, this effectively cuts the amount of students that need to be housed by a third if equal amounts are away for the fall and spring semester.

This makes it much easier to find space for the remaining students who don’t have the benefit of guaranteed housing that those who study abroad in the spring do for the first semester, while

they are on campus.

The Department of Community Living is remarkably ambitious in this attempt to drive students off campus, a direct contradiction to their usual upbeat attitude on how much fun it is to live at Brandeis, because they see the shark in the water here. If they are not incessant in their goal to get as many students signed up to study abroad as possible, a disastrous situation could arise for housing. While

many students with high enough lottery numbers will eventually look off-campus for housing, there will still be some students who wish to live on campus.

With fewer students away for a semester, available housing could run dry. The oft-included adage on campus tours that housing is essentially guaranteed for upperclassmen who really want it, presenting a sense of security and comfort to prospective students and parents, could no lon-

ger be used. Brandeis wants to maintain this partial identity of a small, inclusive liberal arts college, but this could not be true if students who want to live on campus are turned away.

So DCL pawns themselves out for this ultimate goal of maintaining a balance on campus.

They should not have to, but with a lack of housing available to upperclassmen, this is the See ABROAD, page 15

Defining social justice on a personal level

By Nabi Menai

Special to the Hoot

Recently, there has been much fervor attached to the concept of “social justice” and its importance. Brandeis is an institution known for cultivating an academic atmosphere that pursues this ideal, and its student body is wholly committed to many causes.

In lieu of many protests both on this campus and elsewhere in the nation, such as those over the Keystone XL pipeline, it is important to personally evaluate one’s own definition of justice and what it truly means for the individual. Before becoming impassioned about certain issues, one must realize the personal importance of the issue and not blindly trust the dogma associated with it.

One of the main assets of gaining a liberal arts education is that it is tailored toward viewing academia in a global sense. From the teachings of Jean-Paul Sartre to molecular biology, there is a tangent attached to every concept that can be applied on a global scale and can be used to lessen the plight of others. But the opportunities for acting on justice are interminable. Many students set

photo from internet source

goals of travelling abroad to improve detrimental conditions elsewhere, forgetting that everyday actions can have similar effects. It is easy to conflate the idea of social justice with doing something grand and extraor-

dinary, but this is a grave misconception. When looking at philanthropic heroes both past and present, it is important to take note that at the heart of their actions, their intentions were all the same, but they internal-

ized the concept of justice for themselves. Gandhi himself said, “There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.”

As I reflected upon my first semes-

ter at Brandeis as a first-year student over winter break, I gave considerable thought to what justice truly is.

I realized that while it is laudable to See JUSTICE, page 15

March 7, 2014

OPINION 13

The Brandeis Hoot

Shuttle service can be improved through innovation

By Naomi Soman Staff

One of the great things about going to school at Brandeis is that the exciting city of Boston is only a half-hour drive, and students still get to live on a distinct campus. Luckily we have Joseph’s Transportation shuttles running into Boston and Cambridge every Thursday through Sunday.

However, this system is flawed as it leaves students waiting out in the cold and buses idling next to Rabb. Though Brandeis is not completely responsible for the shuttles as it is an outside company, this is starting to become ridiculous.

On Fridays, the shuttle is usually late. While Brandeis cannot do anything about the amount of traffic causing this problem, students still have to wait an absurd amount of time outside in the freezing cold weather. On Friday, Feb. 7, the shuttle scheduled to depart from Rabb at 5 p.m. arrived at Rabb at 5:18 p.m., Harvard Square at 6:24 p.m., and Beacon Street at 6:39 p.m. Therefore, it was 50 minutes late to Harvard Square and 40 minutes late to Beacon Street. Again, on Friday, Feb. 28, almost the same thing happened. The shuttle scheduled to depart from Rabb at 5 p.m. did not come until 5:21 p.m. and did not arrive at Harvard Square until 6:15 p.m. and Beacon Street until 6:39 p.m., 40 minutes late to both locations.

On Fridays, there is always a

graphic by janet jun zhao/the hoot

lot of traffic because everyone is driving home for the weekend.

If there were a GPS tracker connected to an app that students could download on their phones or view online allowing them to track the location of the shuttles, students would be able to plan around when the shuttles actually would arrive rather than when they were scheduled to do so. This would eliminate up to almost an hour of wait time. When temperatures drop into single

digits or even the teens, standing outside for long periods of time becomes not only unfair, but also quite dangerous.

On Saturday and Sunday the shuttles do not have the same traffic problems, so they usually do not arrive so late. On the contrary, they actually arrive too early and end up idling outside Rabb for 20 minutes contributing to pollution. For instance, last Saturday, March 1, the shuttle arrived at Rabb at 4:47 p.m. and

left at 5:01 p.m. then later arrived back at Rabb at 6:08 p.m. and waited around for 23 minutes before its scheduled departure time.

Buses should not be just wasting time for 20 minutes.

If there were a GPS tracker that told students when the buses were scheduled to arrive, the buses could leave right away and thus run much more efficiently. This would save time and resources.

However, a schedule running on an inconsistent basis is hardly a

schedule. We cannot assume that all students have smart phones or at least have service or battery all the time and would be able to check this app for the bus’ arrival time.

Therefore, the first step would be to change the original schedule to match up with the actual arrival times, for if the bus is consistently 20 minutes early, then clearly the schedule leaves too much time for each cycle.

Then, after the schedule more accurately reflects the bus’ route for Saturday and Sunday, the app could predict whether the bus will be a few minutes early or late, compared to the schedule posted online. So the bus will not leave until the newly scheduled time so that everyone knows that the bus will always be there before a certain time, but if the bus happens to be late, students can plan according to the expected arrival time they see on their phone.

Project Cedar, an Android app development club on campus, recently applied to the Senate to be chartered, and one of their ideas was an app for the BranVan, which also tends to be quite late especially in the winter. If they can successfully create and market an app for the BranVan, then they should definitely expand this technology to the Joseph’s shuttles. Granted, this app would have to work for iPhones as well, but at least this idea is off to a start. If this app becomes a Brandeis-wide project, then the entire Brandeis transportation system will run more efficiently.

Students determine definition of Brandeis

By Monique Menezes Special to the Hoot

Let’s play a little word association.

What do you think of when I say any of the following words: Louis, judges, school or social justice? One word that may have come to mind is “Brandeis,” the very institution you have chosen to attend. Nevertheless, do you ever think of what words may come to mind when other people hear “Brandeis?” Some people might think “turkey flying into a window,” our recent small claim to fame. Others might instinctually say, “Jewish.” It is rather difficult to deny the strong Jewish culture prevalent on campus. Neither being known for the oddity of a clumsy turkey or a specific belief system, however, are bad things.

Most people actually find these representations to be positive aspects of being students at Brandeis.

Many students on campus, including myself, get a chuckle out of the shout of a student for a turkey’s well being, and there are many students who are proud of their Jewish background. Maybe it is enough to be “that school” that had a turkey go through a window. Maybe it is enough to be “that” Jewish school.

Maybe it is enough to be perceived in any way because as students here, we know better. We know that there is much more to Brandeis. We know, and that is enough, right? We know Brandeis. We chose Brandeis, and that’s what is important, not our reputation. Who cares what others’

first thought of the school is?

Before you answer that, I have one more question: “Are we Brandeis?”

By that, I mean, in a school where students are so involved, should we take such limited perceptions about our chosen university, personally?

Probably not. There are over 5,000 students who make up Brandeis, and no matter what comes to mind when you think “Brandeis” you cannot go up to any one student and assume he or she is Jewish. Just because our school is known for having a large Jewish population, does not mean every individual here is.

This is true for other stereotypes that might also be assumed about Brandeis. I asked a few students what was the first word that came to mind when I said the word, “Brandeis.” Answers varied, but a few consisted of “Jewish” (more than a few times), “diversity,” “liberal,” “ideal,” “nerdy” and “open-minded.”

Now, those are not bad ideas to be associated with, but even the typically good stuff is not applicable to every student at Brandeis. There are students who have their own biases that may conflict with things such as “open-minded” or “liberal.” And that is absolutely acceptable! Part of being at this university is having your own opinions. This entire article, for example, is one of my opinions, and you don’t have to agree with a single word of it. Each individual at this school, whether their views align with yours or not, contributes to a larger picture, a picture that might look “diverse,” “liberal,” “ideal,” “nerdy,” and it goes on and on. This picture of various attributes make up Brandeis, a place

graphic by janet jun zhao/the hoot

filled with different cultures, beliefs, religions, personalities and interests.

This school cannot be described in one word. Those who do not know much about it do not have to look very far to realize that it is so much more, from the strong academics, to the impressive student body, to the devotion to social justice, and so on and so forth. You may think “Jewish” when you think “Brandeis” but you may also see someone walk-

ing past you on the sidewalk and think “short,” “tall,” “fat” or “skinny.”

Someone may think that of you.

Nonetheless, you know you’re more than one word, and you know that stranger on the sidewalk is more than one word. The concepts we associate with things do not define them.

I am not even going to attempt to define Brandeis because I know it is this diverse and varied place where

people will design their living conditions based on their beliefs such as in Common Cause Communities or go out of their way to expose their fellow students to the realities of the world such as ’DEIS Impact.

This school is so many things. It is not just the place where the turkey crashed into a dorm window. It is not just a Jewish university. Brandeis is so many things, and you are one of them.

14 OPINION

The Brandeis Hoot

March 7, 2014

Housing: the bane of all friendships

By Sasha Ruiz

erything from, “Don’t live in East.

That’s where all the CRAZIES live,” to “Only the anti-social kids live in the Village.” Its hard enough to make Ladies and gentlemen, hold onto a decision that impacts the next your hats. This weekend is the start school year, but to hear outrageous of housing selection for the coming stories from upperclassmen doesn’t year. help. No one wants to end up in an As a first-year diving into the pro- uncomfortable living situation. All cess head first, I have heard plenty this negativity creates the feeling of of horror stories. I’ve heard ev- being cornered.

Staff

One of my friends jokingly suggested that the housing process be run according to GPA. This is on the harsh side of the spectrum, but I think she was onto something. If not GPA, perhaps by major. By major, I mean dorming near your classes.

For example, if most of your classes are in the science complex or the music building you should be able to live in dorms like the Village, Ridge-

photo from internet source

Eliana’s Advice

wood or Ziv. If your classes are in Rabb quad you should dorm in East or the Castle.

Two minute time slots are ridiculous. I understand that they want to make the process quicker and more efficient, but who can make such an important decision in that little time? What if your choice of room is unavailable? Two minutes does not give you adequate time to assess all of the remaining choices you do have. In fact, once your two minutes have expired, the person in the time slot behind you can swoop in and take your room right out from under you. This system is breeding anxiety.

My upperclassmen friends have told me that the process has always been one of the most stressful times of the year. Especially alongside midterm season. This new automated system looks to make it even worse.

I know many people, including myself, that had everything planned out early. We talked to everyone we thought would be a good match and settled down in comfortable roommate groups. Then the Department of Community Living held information sessions and told us neighbor pull-ins would no longer be possible. Over the February break the numbers came out, and things got ugly. Some of my friends had formed alliances before the break and came back to find out that their group had decided to drop them without telling them, for someone with a better number. Another group of friends discovered that only one member had a decent number and they were going to have to split up and hope for the best.

With this new automated process, losing the ability to pull in your friends has made things harder.

While I understand that this is the first year of the online program and

that it was meant to simplify the lives of all involved, neighborhood pull-ins were the one part of the previous method that worked. Basically, you need one friend to team up with. Bigger groups are only possible if someone gets a high enough number for a Rosie or Castle suite. But we all know that these spots are limited and the lottery is the luck of the draw. In the past, although everyone did not always end up living exactly where they wanted, with pull-ins, you knew that you had a good friend right across the hall or just next door. There was no worry of living far away from a friend or feeling lonely in a new dorm. I know that some people will suggest the seemingly simple solution of just making new friends. This is not always easy, especially when friends groups are already established.

This process puts a lot of stress on friendships. You get to the point where someone has to be dropped.

Its hard to decide who gets hurt.

Someone always gets burned. Its especially bad when one person in a group gets a good number but cannot bring everyone with them. How do you choose that person without causing a rift in a friendship? It is a horrible position to put someone in.

One of the main reasons I was drawn to Brandeis was the sense of community. When I was looking at colleges, I noticed that Brandeis was nationally ranked as one of the colleges with the happiest kids. The kindness and school-spirit of the students was definitely a factor in my decision to attend this school.

The new housing process does not add to the overall sense of community on campus. If anything, it is destroying it. It is creating a dog-eatdog world and this process is forcing friends apart.

What not to do with classes, friends and locks

By Eliana Sinoff Staff

Dear Eliana, After doing well with four classes last semester, I thought I’d push myself and go for five classes this semester. I kept the loaded schedule through the add/drop period, but after getting further into the classes, I’m not sure if I can keep up. One class in particular, a Russian language class, has been giving me trouble. I bombed the first test, which was conveniently right after the add/drop period, and I don’t think I can give the time necessary to do my best in this class. Most of the rest of my classes relate to my Chemistry major, and those take up a lot of time for studying. I took Russian because I need to fill the language requirement, and I’m half Russian on my mother’s side, but I’m struggling with even simple concepts. Is there a way I can drop the class without it looking too bad or ruining my GPA? Or should I just stick it out and study more?

-Lost in Translation Dear Lost in Translation, It’s very unfortunate that you did not realize this problem until after the dropping deadline. If you drop the class now, you will get a “W” on your transcript (for “Withdrawn”) and if you don’t, you might get a subpar grade on your transcript. In my opinion, if you don’t think you can do well in this Russian class, don’t take it. It

would be more productive if you took it when you have more time to dedicate to it so you can actually learn and do well. You could drop a different class, but then you still have a similar problem, and it seems as though those classes are giving you less trouble than the Russian one. If you still have doubts, you should definitely also talk to an academic advisor. They are experts at this type of thing, and probably have some insight to your problem. Good luck with the rest of your semester!

-Eliana

time. When that day rolled around, I was sitting in Lower Usdan for 15 minutes waiting for her to respond to my message asking where she was.

My “friend” finally answered as I was walking to Lab, saying that she caught up with other friends and had lunch with them, and she was “really sorry.”

If she was so sorry, wouldn’t she would have let me know she couldn’t make it? I’m just really upset that I’m putting all the effort into this friendship, and she doesn’t bother to text me if she can’t make it. She’s fun to be around, but I can’t stand it when people don’t respond to me. How do I get her to be more responsive?

-Alone in Usdan

Dear Alone in Usdan, There is always that one flakey friend who is hard to meet up with, and it can get extremely annoying.

However, I don’t think you should dismiss this friendship altogether. If you actually like this person, and you two are actually friends, you should talk to her about this. Tell her that it was not cool of her to ditch you like photo from internet source that and then not let you know. She might just need this extra reminder to stay in touch and make time for Dear Eliana, you. If she is still isn’t dependable, anI’ve been trying to get together with other thing you could do is invite her a friend of mine for the past few weeks, to hang out when there will be other but she keeps blowing me off. First she people there. That way, if she doesn’t texted me and said that she was busy show up, at least you are not sitting all writing an essay, and I understood by your lonesome in Usdan. Definitely that, and we made plans for another give your friend a chance to get better

at responding.

-Eliana

friend). If, in fact, your door does not have this setting, you could put a sign on the inside of your door that would Eliana, remind you to bring a key as you’re Lately, I’ve been having trouble leaving. Another possibility is, if you making sure I don’t lock myself out have a lanyard for your keys, just be of my room. Whether it’s forgetting wearing it at all times so you always to take my keys with me when I go to have your key. Remember your keys! class or just forgetting that the door is -Eliana locked when I close it to go the bathroom, its become quite the issue. Usually I have my phone and will just call my roommate to find where he is so I can get his keys or just wait until he can come back, but the most recent occurrence didn’t have that. I left my phone, my keys and my card in my room when I went to fill my water bottle the other day. And that wasn’t the first time I had to walk across campus to the Stoneman building and get a police officer to come and unlock my room for me. Is there anyway that photo from internet source I can make it a point to myself to always grab my keys when I leave? How Dear Readers, If you can’t already do I get it in my head to not close the door when I just walk down the hall? tell, this is an advice column and I’m here to help you with any questions -Johnny Bravo that you might have! If you want more exciting questions, send them in and Dear Johnny Bravo, Those self-locking doors can be I will do my best to answer them. quite a doozy, huh? Well, my first sug- Whether it’s relationships, social gestion is that you figure out if there’s problems or just life in general—send a setting on the door that prevents it them here. I can’t wait to start hearing from locking when it closes unless about everyone’s problems (how often you do it with a key. It usually involves do you hear people say that? Oh yeah, pushing a button near the latch on never). Send questions to Elianasadthe thin, inside portion of the door (I vice@gmail.com. have no better way to describe it, ask a Thanks! -Eliana

March 7, 2014

OPINION 15

The Brandeis Hoot

Study abroad presents unfair gains for Brandeis

photo from internet source

ABROAD, from page 12

consequence. DCL should be less focused on ways that students can leave school and spend more time on how to make the community a safer place and a more active environment for all.

The Department of Community Living, however, is not the only one to cast doubt upon.

The university also has responsibility in all of this. It is offered even more benefits than just a relief for housing in all of this. For some reason, the school charges

full tuition for the semester that a student is studying abroad, which is then forwarded to the program to cover those costs.

If the program costs less than the Brandeis tuition of roughly $22,000, the school pockets the difference. While it might not add any extra financial burden to students or their families, it is still an unethical practice that the school gains from financially.

The increased burden of extra costs for travel, visas and other necessities that accompany living in a different country are still

there, and the school could be more helpful with the financials.

The school actively advertises the vast amount of opportunities offered to students and how many students decide to go forward with it. Yet what the school does not advertise is how much Brandeis gains from it.

By not being on campus, students are unable to benefit from all that tuition covers. Beyond just classes and faculty salaries, which cover a majority of the cost of tuition, students are missing out on extracurricular activi-

ties and events that are open to the entire community, even if a particular student is not involved in the production of that affair.

Any academic advising and use of campus facilities beyond the library and classrooms is impossible if someone is thousands of miles away from the school.

Students, through the actions of DCL and general university policy, are being taken advantage of by choosing to study abroad.

They help out the housing situation by not needing a place to stay for a semester, which then

creates more available housing to students still on campus, and shell out a lot of money to do so. This is supposed to be an attractive feature of Brandeis, something advertised in every pamphlet handed out to impressionable high school students to convince them to come here.

Yes, studying abroad is an excellent opportunity that is only available for some during their college years. The ability to move to another country so easily is something that becomes increasingly difficult after graduating from college. And the experience gained from living within a different culture is something every young adult should encounter to better prepare them for the real world, where everyone one interacts with is not exactly the same, with a similar cultural background and goals. Yet the school is making a killing on it all, with most students turning a blind eye.

This is a conscious effort by the Department of Community Living to promote study abroad to both get students off campus and make the university more money, something students and their parents have been doing more than enough for already.

The university can certainly be more honest in these attempts to drive students straight to the airport and not look back. Not to current students, because everyone on campus has a good idea of these practices, but instead to prospective students. Sure, the facts given on study abroad at this school are enticing, but they do not tell the whole story.

The university could look a lot better if they could simply be honest with everyone, whether it’s with study abroad or executive compensation, and students could get a more accurate view of Brandeis before they apply.

Students need to have more tact JUSTICE, from page 12

have future plans aimed at helping others and careers that act upon this sentiment, justice means more. It is more personal and can be applied nearly everywhere. When I returned to Brandeis, it was evident that there were countless avenues through which justice could be applied. From wasting less food when eating at the cafeteria to picking up random pieces of litter here and there, it serves as a reminder that even minor differences can play an important role in benefiting the community. At the end of the day, these benefits are also important.

They may not seem very impactful but collectively, they do make a difference. After adding my plate to the sea of others after I am done eating, it is hard not to look back at the mountains of food piled atop each plate. It may not seem very significant, but wasting food can be an injustice as well. Similarly, while walking through the campus at times there are often volumes of litter on the floor, from torn newspapers to food wrappings.

Disposing of refuse properly will not only enhance the college aesthetic but also incentivize others to follow suit.

If soda cans and miscellaneous wrappers are left on the floor by one person, others will likely follow, unaware

photo from internet source

of what they are actually doing.

Actions may speak louder than words, but words still have value. It is easy to forget the weight that one’s words sometimes carry. However, it is always good to reflect on how you speak to others. Using derogatory rhetoric in a light-hearted manner

may not seem harmful to you, but it may to others. It is impossible to assess one’s background completely, and so even broaching sensitive topics in a joking manner can offend somebody.

It may be a stretch to call this a form of injustice, but at the heart of it, for someone else it could be.

At the end of the day, however, it is how we perceive our own actions and the actions of those around us that influence our behavior. Just because something seems acceptable or the general consensus is that it is, we must reach that decision for ourselves. We don’t attend class because

we are told to; we do it because we have internalized the reward associated with it. Acting in a just manner, whatever it may be, is similar. As Atticus Finch told his son in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule, is a person’s conscience.”

arts, etc.

March 7, 2014

The Brandeis Hoot 11

“Cyrano de Bergerac” proves clever and entertaining

By Michelle Kim Editor

This Thursday, March 6 Hold Thy Peace opened their show “Cyrano de Bergerac” in the SCC Theater. Based on Edmond Rostand’s 1897 original play and newly adapted by director Tziporah Thompson ’14, the comedy is an “[adaptation of the play] from 1640s France to modern day America whilst still managing to emphasize the fundamental values of the original play,” according to Thompson. The show stars David Benger ’14, Allison Kaminsky ’17, Ryan Mouton ’17, Danny Steinberg ’15 and David Ferrazzoli ’14, as Cyrano, Roxanne, Christian, Le Bret and de Guiche respectively.

The show was clever and humorous.

Kudos to Thompson for her creativity.

What was interesting is that the show is introduced as a show within a show; audience members were brought backstage to see how the storyline develops. There is a mini stage set up on the actual stage; cast members sit in the audience as if watching a dress rehearsal, and Deesha Patel ’16 conducted the rehearsal as a stage manager.

Cyrano, who has become his stage character, emerges from his seat and lets his sassy, intimidating, witty and nose-centric personality be known to the real audience. Secretly in love with

his childhood playmate and current fellow actor Roxanne, Cyrano cannot let his feelings be known as he has a grotesque nose, one that “launched a thousand ships.” Despite his physical ugliness, he is the charismatic star of the theater and even has his own fan club, which consists of Marcy (Monica Ferrer ’14) and Jeanette (Barbara Spidle ’16.) Unfortunately for him, his dearly beloved Roxanne falls in love upon first looking at new member Christian, who is handsome yet dullwitted and has reciprocated her attraction. Cyrano pairs up with Christian to help Christian woo Roxanne.

Because Christian is not the brightest guy on the block, Cyrano helps him out by dictating love poems, which Christian texts to Roxanne, who believes that the new stage eye candy is a passionate poet.

One of the funnier parts of the show is when Christian attempts to chat up Roxanne in person. The most romantic thing Christian is able to utter is “I like you,” to which Roxanne frowns.

Valiantly and desperately, he tries again with “I really like you … I love you?” Roxanne storms angrily away.

Although there are some parts when Cyrano speaks poetically, the majority of the show will make you laugh.

The costuming of the show consists of a combination of clothes from both 1640 and 2014. Like the stage set, it was nothing too spectacular, but it

laughs for everyone The show will entertain audience members for the entire weekend.

massively helped differentiate when the show was set backstage and when it was “on stage.”

As “Cyrano de Bergerac” continues, it is evident that the play pokes fun at the idea of true love at first sight.

Thompson has done a fine job of adding comedic lines to the script, which will serve to make the play more easily accessible to audience members.

To further aid the accessibility of the production, she also adds modernday characters, like Roxanne’s sarcastic, not-so-best friend Dianna (Subhi Sapkota ’16) and Carbon (Josh Kelly ’14.)

I thought that, for the most part, each actor embodied his or her character well. Benger in particular did a superb job of becoming Cyrano. It would not be surprising if he spoke in Cyrano’s epigrammatic style in reality. There was not one awkward actor, which made the narrative much more believable.

Students should watch the show to see how the love triangle between Cyrano, Christian and Roxanne plays out. To Thompson’s credit, she adds a terrific and much-appreciated plot twist at the end. Although “Cyrano de Bergerac” is no “Cabaret,” it is still extremely enjoyable and something you should spend one of your weekend nights attending. I applaud Thompson for her adaptation of a play that I had always thought was less than exciting.

newcomer and ladies’ man Christian attracts all the girls.

photos by edwin gonzalez/the hoot